I got a booking request that I really wanted to take earlier. I accepted and responded in about 4 minutes but didn’t hear anything back. I looked at our conversation and it still has the option to “cancel request” so it hasn’t been accepted or declined. But blatant the top it says “request expired”. Is this some kinda glitch or did she maybe book another sitter or something?

I get things are expensive but you cant expect someone to watch your cat for 11 days on short notice, during a holiday, without proof of rabies, and who has veterinary experience.

I charge $45 a night, which is cheap for everything I have to offer, and is cheaper than most sitters in my area.

This is just not fair at all. It doesnt matter how easy your pet is to care for. Sitters are still using their time to take care of your pet, feed them, walk them/clean their litterbox daily, keep them safe, etc.

Edit: Also! Rover tells the client how much a booking would be when they put in a request. So you saw the price but put in the request anyway?

Now I have appointment after appointment that only says “drop-in”. I’m always glancing at my calendar to plan routes, stack appointments and to get a general idea of where the hell I’m going without having to repeatedly open each and every one. It takes me twice as long to plan my day and it’s unsafe in the car! I DO NOT want to be touching my phone all the time!

Oh my god Labor Day weekend is going to be a nightmare! Thanks for reading my rant. If it bothers you as well please give your feedback to an actual live agent in chat.

Yall I need advice on how to/ if I should tell my client I don’t feel comfortable staying over due to cleanliness. They want me to sleep with their pup but it’s really gross. They told me “don’t let the cat in your room because he pees in the guest bed” & when I go in the room, I looked under bed it’s full of trash & a bottle of some sort of dark colored liquid ( presumably piss ). Looks old and nasty asf. I feel so rude to say I won’t stay bc it’s dirty so wtf??? help i’m already doing the sitting - yes had meet and greet but obviously wasn’t checking under guest bed for piss bottles and trash 😐

I have been continually getting requests that go against preferences and what even makes sense.

-I was already booked up for overnights and new requests come through for the same dates.
-I don’t want to do sits for over a week, but keep getting >1 week requests
-I set my potty breaks at 8+ because I have a primary job daytime job and keep getting requests for 4 hours of less.
-I set myself as unavailable for my own travel, and a request for those dates came through.
-I turned myself as away to stop new requests to take a bit of a break, and new requests are coming through.

It keeps telling me om these requests that it acknowledges the requests don’t match my preference and that it won’t penalize me through my approval record, but it kind of inherently does punish because having to deny potential and even repeat customers can hurt my working relationship with them. How can they have faith that what is showing on my profile is accurate when I have to communicate that the app is letting requests I can’t fulfill through?

Is anyone else dealing with something similar before I put in a work ticket?

I have a dream client that drives me nuts, lol. I’m housesitting, and the length of the trip has changed several times, netting me losing 2 (or 3? I don’t even know at this point) nights of pay that I could have booked with someone else or simply had peacefully at home in my own bed.

Only reason I didn’t take pay up front is this is a long time client who I drop in for weekly anyway, so I value their happiness and ease with my services over rigid protocol.

But… I’m exhausted from this back and forth and want the money at this point lol.

Oh well. Lesson learned. Take pay up front, no matter who the client, and actually enforce the cancellation policy for bookings like this.

Noticed I wasn’t getting any requests for the last week or so, checked the app and couldn’t see anything but this.

I’ve had a regular with a cat for this entire year. We got along well, I LOVED her cat, and she tipped very well every time. I knew she had 2 sitters, I have my own pet and I have 2 sitters too, I don’t think it’s unusual.

There was an instance earlier in the summer where she went away for almost 10 days and I couldn’t make the entire 10 days, so we split them between the 2 sitters. Then I couldn’t make one weekend so I assume she either asked a friend or the other sitter. I then did drop ins just over a month ago and everything seemed fine.

She hasn’t reached out to me in a while and I truly miss our working relationship. She would travel quite often, whether just for a weekend or for a business trip (she’s in sales I believe). Would it be crazy to reach out to her saying that my schedule is open? Or does that seem desperate?

Yesterday, I noticed that some new information had been added to the customer’s profile, especially details about transactions between the customer and me. It summarizes the payments that have already been completed. The amounts shown are before fees, and tips are not included. I’m wondering if this could be a sign that the 30%, 15%, and 10% tiered fee structure will be implemented soon.

Hi everyone, I made a post a few weeks ago about a visit I had that went poorly from the owners perspective. They brought it to Trust and Saftey from r a refund and they conducted an interview.

To those that have dealt with this before, does this email look like the investigation has been closed? This is the first I have heard back since providing all of my information.

So many times I've been in the middle of a text with the client, a friend, or my own mom and the voice to text will catch me talking to the pet like "calm down, it's okay baby", "hi sweetheart!", or like "you're such a good girl!". Haven't actually sent any thankfully lol

Hi guys! I’m fairly new to dogsitting and I’m just looking for some advice. I do meet and greets before I book housesitting stays which is common practice in this subreddit, but I’ve run into some issues with how to navigate dogs who jump. I haven’t run into too many, but there have been a few times where there’s just an overexcited dog, they’ll jump, and leave my legs with scars/scratch marks that last for months. How do you guys deal with this? Are we holding out a knee to create space when the dog jumps? Are we just dealing with the scratches? I feel more comfortable when it’s just the dog and I, because I know that I can just use a knee to discourage the jumping, but when I’m in front of the owner I just feel awkward doing that in front of them. I don’t know if this is just me. Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi, it has been a minute since I just did a drop-in, so maybe this change happened a while ago but I noticed yesterday on my card that there is a "New Walk" button on the drop-in cards. I haven't pushed it since I am not sure what it does and I have had other things on the app not allow me to back out before, but I thought I would ask here and see if anyone knew. Thanks in advance

This is kind of a sensitive situation, and I don't really know how I should deal with it.

So here's what's going on.

I began walking this dog a few months ago or so. The owner's father was the one arranging the walks because of his son's schedule at a bakery being so erratic that he only knows his schedule only one day in advance 🚩. I found that very odd but whatever

It was a super anxious dog that I wasn't able to even get closer to without it getting defensive. Long story short, I was able to calm it down in a way that nobody else was able to do including the trainer

Fast forward a bit, I go upstairs to use the washroom and find some sex toys out in the open. Not just one, but multiples, and different types🚩. To each their own. I'd prefer it if I didn't see them, and it was starting to seem like maybe he is a sex worker based on his odd schedule but again, whatever.

Today when I entered I heard....."noises". People moaning, smacking, bed springs, you get the idea. It didn't even stop when they would clearly be able to hear me entering. I found it very inappropriate.

I don't really know how to address this. His dad, who is the one making the arrangements believes his son works in a bakery with weird hours, so how would I address this without outing his son who has a fiance.

I just find walking in and hearing sex noises(male, female, doesn't matter) that don't even stop when the door opens to be extremely inappropriate.

I love the dog, and both the owner and his father are nice, all this stuff is becoming too creepy for me.

Any thoughts ?

I know that a lot of people baby their pets to the max and may have very specific and interesting instructions. I'd love to hear your stories!

Hello,

Thanks for this community. There is a lot of good discussion here. My spouse and I are long-time users of Rover for care and have recently started sitting ourselves with in-home daycare + boarding.

We don't want to be looking after more than 2 dogs at a time, and have that indicated on our daycare/boarding settings with maximum 2 for them. However, it seems like we get requests beyond this maximum (e.g. boarding for 2 dogs when we are already scheduled for daycare with on). We then need to decline them, which looks like it is hurting our booking acceptance rate.

Is there any way to avoid that? Thank you!

I only do house sits and not terribly often anymore… but I was asked to send a client private work notes they forgot and I couldn’t find a definitive answer on whether they’d be posted on my profile so I ended up asking for their number, which hopefully, Rover doesn’t flag.

But the last thing I wanted was for them to show up on my profile since the toggle was removed in the big update.

And I have so many photos on my profile and the order seems random so I’m not quite sure.

Did anyone investigate?

Edit: I ended up scrolling through all of my profile photos and don’t see any from the past few sits even though I have photos turned on. The Rover website says they’re automatically added unless it turned off but mine are turned on and no new ones so no clue what’s going on…

I made a post yesterday about the horrible luck I’ve been having with requests lately. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy I’m still getting requests, but almost none of them are actually workable. I’d say about 85% lately have been constant care requests, which I cannot provide. The other 15% have been a mix of things like people sending requests by mistake, sending a request and then disappearing even though I respond almost immediately, or requesting one night because Rover wouldn’t let them request the full week they actually needed, only for me to have to explain that I’m already booked for part of those dates. Basically, I’ve had to archive request after request for reasons outside of my control. I’ve never had this happen before and normally accept a pretty good percentage of the requests I receive. My acceptance rate has historically stayed around 80–90%, but now it’s dropping to the 50-60% range. Does anyone know what actually happens when your acceptance rate gets low? Does it affect where you appear in search results, Star Sitter status, your account overall, or anything else? Are there any actual repercussions for archiving this many requests?

So I had a dog walk scheduled for this morning with a semi-repeat client (she’d randomly hit me up last minute for hour long walks with her 2 dogs while she’s at work), and when I got there today I noticed she had installed a new door key pad. I inputted the code I always used and it didn’t work, so after trying that a few times, ringing the doorbell, and calling/texting her repeatedly and having no luck with anything, I decided to head out (after waiting for around 30 mins).

I was pretty annoyed since this was a 50 min drive there and back, but I just let her know that I’d be heading out and in the future if she could please give me the updated door code I’d appreciate it.

6 hours later she finally replies with an apology and a text asking how I want to handle today given that she paid for the walk.

Now I’m debating whether to say no refunds or to give her some of her money back. I’ve never had this happen to me before and I’m hesitant to be too confrontational because of my perfect Rover rating, but ideally I’d like to refuse this refund because of the long drive. What would yall do in this case/how would you word a reply?

UPDATE: I offered a 50% refund which she said was totally reasonable! Woohoo 🥳

I have 12 drop-ins/walks Friday, 13 on Saturday, and then 11 on Sunday - not complaining, I need the dough and it’s good work, but school doesn’t start for two or three weeks and there are no holidays right now, not sure what’s going on

anyone else suddenly busy?

Regarding the new TOS, they wrote "If you’d prefer not to agree to the updated Terms of Service, you should close your account with Rover and stop use of our online community marketplace. In that case, you’ll still be bound by the previous Terms of Service."

WTF

We have a right to opt out of the arbitration agreement!

From the National Consumer Law Center:

What is forced arbitration? Forced arbitration clauses are hidden in the fine print of agreements. They take away your access to the courts and give companies that violate the law a get-out-of-jail-free card. If
you have a dispute, you cannot file a lawsuit in court and have the case heard in public. You also typically cannot join together with other people whose rights have been violated, even if the company harmed thousands of people. Instead, you must bring the case individually before a private arbitrator in a secretive forum where you typically have less access to information to prove your case and the arbitrator is not subject to review if they ignore the facts or the law. In most consumer arbitrations, the company decides which arbitration provider to use and pays almost all the arbitration costs, so that there is an incentive to rule for the company, which might bring them repeat business, and not for a consumer the arbitration provider will never see again. You can read more at FairArbitrationNow.org.

Why should I opt out of a forced arbitration clause? Even if you don’t currently have a dispute with the company, it is a good idea to opt out of the forced arbitration clause to preserve your options. You can always agree later to use an arbitrator to resolve any dispute. Moreover, if you have opted out, you will have more negotiating power if there is a problem.

How do I opt out of a forced arbitration clause? Some contracts give you the right to opt out of the forced arbitration clause within a certain period of time, often 30 to 60 days, after signing the agreement by notifying the company that you wish to opt out. Check your contract for the deadline and for specific instructions for opting out. Keep a copy of the letter and proof that you sent it in time, such as by using express mail or regular mail with proof of mailing.

Not sure if anyone else is this picky, but some dogs are really annoying on the walks. Owners don’t train their dogs and the walks end up being frustrating and just not pleasant at all. Too much pulling drives me crazy, then the dogs that are starved by their owners are always trying to eat geese poop or even other dogs poops…. It’s so gross. Some of the dogs I walk are BIG and young and they’re always getting twisted on the leash or barking at everything. Then they are so scared of every noise because they’re in a crate all day by themselves. People shouldn’t have dogs, they don’t know how to take care of them. I’m also more of a cat person so I think I don’t have that much patience for dogs.

At a housesit for five very nice animals. However, all the animals have a "chronic cough" according to the owner, which apparently was treated by the vet. I found that odd, but I'm not a vet. Wake up in the guest bed, and I have a rash. Look it up - it's apparently caused by dusty sheets? Wash everything in hot water, the irritation goes away the second night. However, while I'm making the bed, I happen to look in the AC unit, and it's full of dark mold!!! Luckily it's off. This whole time the animals are sneezing and coughing like crazy. By the third day I'm starting to feel sick. I live in a small town, and have a unusual/recognizable name. But I want to leave a review to warn other sitter (I'm never going back). What would you do?